This year’s high-speed opening act will explore data and technology trends in media across the 40 years of the Entertainment Symposium and what those trends may mean for the future of content and business. Now in its 11th year, the Status Report will provide not only current numbers, but in this anniversary year will look at how trends and prognostications have played out since the Symposium began. Key decisions and developments during the four decades will be examined that fundamentally changed production and distribution, and the basics of the business. These will be applied to current trends and economics as the industry settles into the reality that consumers want, and will have, any content at any time or place and on any device. Latest technologies and production economics will be explored from mobile to 8K to drones to automated content creation.

There was $1 billion of financing from China to Hollywood in 2015, with perhaps more than twice that coming in 2016. This panel will discuss the future of Chinese investment in Hollywood, including the motivations of the investors, the structure of the deals, and the implications for film companies and financiers.

Relativity Media’s recent Chapter 11 filing has demonstrated how one bankruptcy case can have a ripple effect throughout an entire industry, as vendors and participants go unpaid and unreleased films are stuck in limbo. As seen in Relativity’s case and others like it, a variety of powers may be exercised in bankruptcy that may impair or otherwise affect the different parties’ rights in intellectual property licenses and other contracts. This panel of experts will address these and other issues that arise in bankruptcy cases involving entertainment companies, writers, and artists.

Moderator: Kenneth N. Klee, Partner, Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP and Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law

Leading negotiators from three major studios will provide practical tips on dealing with guild issues. The discussion will include a review and interpretation of various provisions in the DGA, SAG-AFTRA and WGA guild agreements with respect to New Media, Secondary Digital Channels, Reality Television, Social Media and Promotions. Whether you represent talent or companies, this discussion will help you navigate the complicated guild issues that often arise.

The general conversation around consumer “cord cutting” has largely focused on three main streaming services-Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video, and Hulu. Each of these services has built its brand by offering users a compelling mix of high-end second-run programming and traditionally-structured and produced, premium long-form original programming. But while you may be patting yourself on the back for finally figuring out how to stream “Orange is the New Black” from the Netflix app on your smart TV, it’s more likely that your kids are engrossed in a short-form series you’ve never heard of, featuring a social media star you can’t recognize, on a platform you never knew existed (and it ain’t YouTube). The last few years have seen the emergence of a massive new marketplace, specializing in short form original content, delivered through compelling app-based user experiences on mobile phone and tablet devices. Just because you may have never heard of Go 90, Fullscreen, SeeSo, or Watchable, doesn’t mean your 10-year-old hasn’t. So who are these new players in the original content marketplace? This panel of distinguished creative, business and legal minds, across a variety of buyers and sellers in this new digital ecosystem, will explore what lessons they have taken from their traditional media forebears (or, in some cases corporate partners), and how they have redefined the business to meet their own needs. And they’ll help us tackle one major question: when it comes to delivering content to users via the Internet, there is little question that there are more than enough megabytes to go around…but are there enough dollars too?

Litigation always
hands us surprises and challenges. 2015 was no different.
This panel will focus on just a few of the most interesting and intriguing
litigated matters: (1) the music industry has seen some of the most
significant industry-changing litigation in the past decade. This past
year has seen class actions in California state court against Sirius XM and
Pandora for common law copyright infringement and misappropriation of pre-1972
recordings, and federal court action against Spotify for copyright
infringement for failing to license songs it distributes through interactive
streaming and limited downloads; (2) recent developments in profit
participation cases, with a focus on class actions and securities claims; and
(3) the latest developments in the fair use doctrine.

UCLA Law Professor Doug Lichtman returns this year but with a forward-looking twist. Rather than looking back at the major cases and events from the year gone by, Professor Lichtman will pull out his crystal ball and talk about the cases, policy changes, and product launches that are likely to matter in the months ahead. Topics will include pending litigation in copyright and entertainment, as well as a smattering of related patent law, communications law, and free speech topics.

While law-related films primarily aim to entertain mass audiences, the exemplary or lamentable behavior of the lawyers and judges depicted in the films often provide dramatic or comical illustrations of the legal profession’s formal rules of conduct. This presentation uses clips from law-related films as the basis of an hour-long discussion of legal ethics.

Presenter: Paul Bergman, Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law

TicketsTickets may be purchased through the UCLA Central Ticket Office (under "Special Events") anytime or by phone, using MasterCard, VISA, American Express and Discover, at 310 825-2101 from 10:00 am-4:00 pm Monday-Friday (closed Saturday, Sunday and major holidays).

Tickets are discounted for multiple ticket orders.

$350.00 for a single ticket purchased on or before March 1, 2016
$395.00 for a single ticket purchased after March 1, 2016
$325.00 each for 3 or more tickets
$250.00 for full-time students with valid student i.d. (no other discount)

Ticket price includes the Entertainment Symposium Syllabus, lunch on Saturday, March 12, 2016 and coffee breaks on both days.

Continuing Legal Education
UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider.
By attending this symposium, you may earn Minimum Continuing Legal Education
credit in the amount of up to 8.0 hours of general MCLE credit and 1 hour of
Legal Ethics credit. This event may meet the requirements for continuing legal
education credits in other states. Please check with the bar association in the
state in which you are seeking credits to see if this event is eligible.

Continuing Education for Accountants
The provider of this program follows the CE guidelines specified in the California Board of Accountancy Regulations. The program may qualify for 10.5 CE hours.

Parking
Parking is available for $12.00 per day in Lot 3 located at Wyton Drive and Hilgard Avenue. Parking with a handicapped placard is $5.00 per day. CASH ONLY. Directions to campus and maps

Video/Audio recording of the Symposium is prohibited.

For more information, please contact UCLA School of Law Office of Events at 310 825 -0971 or events@law.ucla.edu.